


Hopeless

by LindleyJo



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gore, Implied Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 16:01:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1905099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LindleyJo/pseuds/LindleyJo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was it. This was where they were headed.</p><p>Written for Iron Zombies! Challenge - July 2014</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopeless

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry.

During the first few months of the zombie apocalypse, over two-thirds of the population had either been infected or killed. Within two years, the number had reached 95 percent of the population. 

The vast majority of deaths had been in metropolitan areas, now largely avoided by the living. But there were certain rural areas where people had congregated that had fallen due to the gray plague. Generally, the consensus was that runners would stay as far away from these places as possible. Occasionally, however, exceptions had to be made.

There weren’t exactly a lot of places around Abel to scavenge. One medium-sized city nearby and a few small towns and secluded farmhouses through the surrounding area quickly became thoroughly picked over. Within the year, runners were being sent back into areas that were deemed “empty”, just in case something new turned up.

But this time was different. They were being sent somewhere that they _knew_ hadn’t been emptied. In fact, if the reports were correct, the food and medicine stores should be full to bursting and generally untouched. They had considered it a bit strange when Sam had given the large group a briefing of the mission. But when Janine showed up in the comms shack, expressing the gravity of the mission to the rather large group of runners, they knew it was serious.

Red Settlement had fallen a little over a year prior to the mission, and had been avoided since. 

Jody’s stomach turned at the thought of going into the area. She knew that it had once been filled with people and she dreaded seeing the emptiness, the ghosts. Jody was by no means a superstitious person, but something about the idea made her nervous. Like they were heading to cursed ground and treading on it would invite death to come back with them. And she had seen more than enough of that for one lifetime.

“Raise the gates!” she heard Sam cry through her headset. She fell in step between Runner Three and Runner Five, silent and solemn. This wouldn’t be a mission for Sam’s lighthearted jokes or for Simon’s playful teasing. They all understood the need for respect. They all understood the need for silence.

The way was clear and quiet, most of the zoms having been cleared from the area by runners earlier that day. She spotted a few mangled body parts along the path, but it was a sight that she had become used to. The relative quiet allowed them to reach the former settlement in record time. 

The first thing she noticed was the smell. That was always the first thing, during those days; the morbidly familiar scent of decomposing flesh. The second thing she noticed was the silence. That was never the second thing. The _smell_ was almost always followed by the muffled groans and shuffling of zombies. And in a place like this, with plenty of chain-link to rattle, the silence was more than a little unsettling.

The group came to the gate and halted at Sam’s order. If it weren’t for the smell and the silence, the group would think the sight almost ordinary. A large gate surrounded by a barbed wire fence, only one small opening for runners. The thing would have kept the settlement secure under normal circumstances. But that day, it was open.

And it had been open for the last year, at least. If what she assumed was their hospital hadn’t been in the way, they would have been able to see the entire complex. As it was, they were blocked a corrugated tin wall.

Half of them circled around, heading straight for the food, but Jody stayed behind with the others to search the hospital. She spotted a door on the side, and all filed through. Silently, they started picking up what medical supplies they could find, piling them into the large duffle bags each had been issued.

Jody was surprised to notice that the smell had diminished inside the building. Of all of the places, she had expected this to be one of the worst. But it was clean, and smelled generally sanitary and almost looked like it hadn’t been touched since the settlement fell. 

After they had cleared what they could find in the hospital, Jody stepped outside the building with the other runners. The sight before her brought her to her knees.

Bodies, lined up like grotesque dominoes, spread through the courtyard. Children, adults, the elderly. Boys, girls, men, women. Everyone. 

They were significantly decayed, their flesh falling from their bones to reveal the blackened muscle beneath. Each bore a single head wound – a gunshot to the skull. In several places large, thorny plants had sprouted up between and even _through_ the bodies. 

The smell had grown worse.

She knelt in stunned silence, staring in shock at the aftermath of the gray plague. This was where they were headed. This was where they were _all_ headed. 

Suddenly, Simon had started speaking by her side before she had even realized he was near her, “-in their comms shack, Sam. It’s a note. It… sort of… explains what happened. Someone got infected and didn’t say anything. So… well… they tried to stop things before it escalated.”

This was it. It was like looking into the future - _their_ future.  
Jody turned to her side and retched.


End file.
